Jeff Drees, who until now served as country president for Schneider Electric’s US division, has been appointed to a new global position of senior VP of professional services. In this role, he will report to Laurent Vernerey, executive VP of Schneider’s IT business.

The French company’s professional-services division currently offers IT consulting and integration services, as well as energy-management services. But Drees will lead efforts to combine these with energy procurement, sustainability reporting and supply- and demand-side analysis and reporting, as Schneider expands its presence in the services space.

“This will be a critical initiative for our company and Jeff has the experience, results and passion to lead these efforts in our company and with our customers,” Vernerey said, commenting on Drees’ new role.

Schneider’s North America CEO Chris Curtis will take over Drees’ country-president duties in addition to his current responsibilities. He will continue to be accountable for growth and profitability of the company’s businesses  in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Drees has been at Schneider since 2001. He’s gone through positions in the company’s Buildings business, Energy Solutions, System Integration and Partners.

The ramp-up in the professional-services space is a major strategic initiative for Schneider. The company said it would announce more details in this regard early next year.